We're half-way through the new year and already $6 billion in local school bonds have appeared at the ballot box. Of the hundreds of measures that made their way to the ballot, local voters approved an estimated $4 billion in school bonds.

As a comparison, for the whole year of 2011 school bond money totaled about $8 billion and nearly $3 billion of it was approved by voters.

The amount of bond money that was voted on varied largely by state. California had the most money up for grabs with a total of around $2.3 billion; of which $1.83 billion was approved.

The approval rate for the state of California stands at 80% for the first 6 months of the year. In 2011, California had a 41% approval rating for the entire year (12 months).

On the other end of the spectrum, Oregon had the least amount of bond money on the ballot - $129 million. Voters approved $89 million.

Though Oregon had the least amount of bond money on the ballot, the state of Illinois featured the lowest approval rating for bond proposals. Illinois had a total of $156 million up for vote, but only $18.9 million was approved by voters.